Here is one of my students who I affectionately call Mr. Ramone because he fancies himself as one of them. He’s performing at our school assembly de cantantes today. About fifteen of my seniors, some in pairs and some solo, bravely got up in front of a rowdy audience and belted out a song or two. If that’s not exciting enough, Dan was the headliner, making his concert debut with lots of fanfare. He opened the event with Victor Jara’s
Te Recuerdo Amanda and yet again stirred emotions with his beautiful rendition. He followed with
One Meatball after an elegant introduction in Spanish about its significance of scarcity and poverty during the depression era.
Meanwhile, I’m riding high on waves of appreciation and admiration for the talent and courage of today’s artists, Dan included. As I witnessed my students standing on the stage baring their souls I was struck by how multifaceted they are. I have to preface all of this by saying that there are days when my enthusiasm wanes considerably. Teaching 400 seniors in their last months of high school doesn’t always bring out their best attributes—or mine for that matter. Senioritis reigns. When Gustavo is ignoring me and bobbing his head to his mp3 player, Luis is stonewalling me with “no entiendo inglés”, Carolina has her cosmetic accoutrements strewn all over her desk and is curling her eyelashes with that scary looking contraption, and Maria is ignoring the spilled perfume pooling all over her desk and soaking her assignments--- ahhh, let’s just say that it takes a will of steel to refrain from grabbing my backpack and departing with “hasta luego”. And I’m being kind here. This honest –to-goodness scene is hardly the worst of it.
Yet I glimpsed the best of it today. It was a One Meatball moment! My current epiphany is that I’m being served a full course meal this year in Chile and sometimes I reduce my experience with my students to one meatball. I only see a small part of who they are--often just minor details in the complex collage of their beings. Some of my challenging students performed this morning and exposed their veracity for life and love. It is a poignant reminder to avoid the myopia of one meatball and to consume the entire feast offered to me.
Here’s the link to a video of Dan singing
Here is one of my students who I affectionately call Mr. Ramone because he fancies himself as one of them. He’s performing at our school assembly de cantantes today. About fifteen of my seniors, some in pairs and some solo, bravely got up in front of a rowdy audience and belted out a song or two. If that’s not exciting enough, Dan was the headliner, making his concert debut with lots of fanfare. He opened the event with Victor Jara’s Te Recuerdo Amanda and yet again stirred emotions with his beautiful rendition. He followed with One Meatball after an elegant introduction in Spanish about its significance of scarcity and poverty during the depression era. 
